Kathy Carre, author of the Victoria Story Series, officially launched the second book in the series, ‘Victoria Hurts Whitney Baker’s Feelings’, on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

During her podcast that evening Carre also chose, out of a bowl containing about 100 names, Suzanne Miron to be the lucky recipient of a free copy of the book.

Carre says she is thrilled with the response she has been getting for the story.

“Within minutes of the announcement of it being available on Amazon, the book was on its way to Texas.”

It has travelled to Hawaii, Texas and New York. Carre says children have a real connection to the book.

“It’s magical.”

The new book is about jealousy. Victoria, the little seven-year-old girl the series is centred around, becomes jealous when Whitney, the new girl in school, becomes the centre of attention. Because Victoria is jealous she reacts in an inappropriate way, resulting in hurt feelings.

Carre says she is trying to normalize the feeling of jealousy.

“By normalizing the whole feeling of jealousy it is possible to forgive yourself as well as others. It’s okay to make mistakes, to feel angry, but it is a mistake to hurt someone.”

In the book, Victoria confides in her dog Spot about her feelings and comes to the realization that she must treat Whitney the same way she would like to be treated. She apologizes and the two girls become friends.

“Kids are very forgiving when they are young.”

The children’s author stresses that jealousy is sometimes associated with embarrassment.

“It’s okay to feel this way.”

Carre wants both children and adults to understand that jealousy is a perfectly normal feeling. The book was written to help children deal with the feeling, and to manage their emotions in a positive way. In that vein she dedicated the book, “To everyone who has ever felt jealous.”

Before her retirement Carre spent many years working in the school system as a counsellor, and says she is available to go into any school in the area. She spent a lot of time this past year going into the elementary schools and telling the children about Victoria.

Her first book dealt with how to handle people saying hurtful things. The secret umbrella referred to in the title is an invisible protection to bounce those words off, not allowing them to have an effect.

Carre says she would also like to go into the high schools to speak with the older children. To that end, she would like to hear from a drama teacher, English teacher, anyone in the arts, at the secondary school level. Besides speaking about the topics in the books she can also give them a tutorial about the whole process she went through to publish her books.

There are seven books in the Victoria Story Series, with five of them still waiting to be published. Carre says she also wants to do one on how children deal with cancer. Specifically, she would like to do a special Victoria book about how children undergoing treatment for cancer, are treated, especially when they go back to school.

Recently, Carre spoke with Dayna Caruso, the executive director of Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer, who thought it was a great idea. The first step in the process of writing such a sensitive book is to touch base with the families of children with cancer.

Carre plans on spending a lot of time interviewing parents and family members of children who are going through cancer treatment and get their perspective on it. How has their child been treated by their peers in the school system? What can be done to make it easier for them and their classmates to deal with this issue? What would the parents like to see take place? What works and what doesn’t? The book, which will take a while to write and illustrate, will feature Victoria with a little friend who has cancer.

Cancer is a subject that Carre says is not dealt with from a child’s perspective. Such a book could be a big help in showing healthy children how to properly relate to a child with cancer. In turn it would also make it easier for the child with cancer to integrate back into the school system.